Study On Jurisdictional Conflict Between RCEP And WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism

The WTO is the world’s largest multilateral trade organization,which has been in operation for more than 20 years and has made great contributions to the development and prosperity of global trade.However,as multilateral trade negotiations struggled,some countries were not satisfied with the current pace of free trade under the multilateral system,and turned to regional trade agreements(RTAs)to promote trade liberalization.Since then,the regionalization of the world economy has become more active than ever.In particular,the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP),which will enter into force on January 1,2022,will further break down regional trade barriers in Asia and reshape the global economic landscape.Of course,the prosperity of RTA also makes the jurisdictional conflicts between WTO and RTA increasingly intensify.how to balance the possible differences with WTO on dispute settlement and avoid the situation of jurisdictional conflicts has become an important challenge for RCEP as a typical RTA.Since the members of RCEP are also members of the WTO,and its substance and overall structure are heavily referenced to the WTO’s regulations,there is an overlap of jurisdiction between the two.In addition,the WTO has not made clear provisions on the conflict of jurisdiction,resulting in the inability to connect with the RTA DSM,and thus the conflict of jurisdiction between the WTO and RCEP is inevitable.Although RCEP has realized this risk and set up selective exclusive jurisdiction clause in Chapter 19,which seems to be sufficient to solve this thorny problem,some cases of NAFTA and MERCOSUR have revealed the inadequacy of these clauses in the face of WTO.Therefore,the issue of reconciling the conflicting jurisdictions of WTO and RCEP becomes an important issue.In a word,we begin with the normative text of Chapter 19(Dispute Settlement Mechanism)of RCEP,deconstruct its connotation,compare it with the WTO dispute settlement mechanism,analyze the internal causes of jurisdictional conflicts between the two,and put forward proposals to harmonize the jurisdictional issues between RCEP and WTO by analyzing the practice of WTO in dealing with such issues.Specifically,this paper is divided into four parts.The first part outlines the RCEP dispute settlement mechanism,compares it with the WTO dispute settlement mechanism,explores the inherent legal relationship between them,explains the meaning of the RCEP jurisdiction clause,and points out the advantages and shortcomings of its procedural design;the second part analyzes the causes of jurisdictional conflicts from three aspects: institutional basis,legal sources,and parties’ behavior,and points out the legal consequences arising from them.The third part takes "Mexico Soft Drinks Case" and "Argentina Poultry Case" as the object of study,analyzes the WTO’s practice in dealing with the conflict of jurisdiction with RTA,and evaluates it,so as to provide reference for the subsequent settlement measures;the fourth part is based on the aforementioned analysis.The fourth part will reconcile the conflict of jurisdiction between the two,including the application of general international legal principles,the distinction between "jurisdiction" and "admissibility",the function of treaty interpretation and the revision of the DSU,in an attempt to contribute to the harmonization of jurisdictional conflicts between RCEP and WTO.